Various systems and devices may be provided in a vehicle interior that utilize a speech recognition system or software, such as a hands-free telephone system, a navigation system, an audio system, etc. Hands-free telephone systems have been developed for a vehicle that allow the hands-free use of a driver's or passenger's personal mobile phone. For example, a hands-free telephone system for a vehicle may include a microphone and speakers mounted in the interior of the vehicle and a processing or control circuit which processes spoken commands from a vehicle occupant and performs telephone operations, such as making a telephone call. Speech recognition is used to recognize a spoken command from a vehicle occupant to make a telephone call and to receive a telephone number via spoken words from the-vehicle occupant. Speech recognition may also be used in other vehicle systems and devices, for example, a navigation system, to recognize voice commands from a vehicle occupant.
Many speech recognition systems allow a user to train the speech recognition system to their voice and dialect and create a user speech profile. Multiple different users (e.g., a driver and passengers of a vehicle), however, may use a hands-free phone system or other voice recognition enabled systems in the vehicle. There is a need, therefore, for a system and method to identify the user of the hands-free phone system or other voice controlled system in the vehicle in order to select the appropriate user speech profile for the speech recognition system.